In
biology and
ecology, an 'organism' (in
Greek ''organon'' = instrument) is a
living complex adaptive system of
organs that influence each other in such a way that they
function in some way as a stable whole.
The
origin of '
life on
Earth' and the relationships between its major lineages are controversial. Two main grades may be distinguished, the
prokaryotes and
eukaryotes. The prokaryotes are generally considered to represent two separate
domains, called the
Bacteria and
Archaea, which are not closer to one another than to the eukaryotes. The gap between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is widely considered a major missing link in
evolutionary history. Two
eukaryotic organelles, namely
mitochondria and
chloroplasts, are generally considered to be derived from
endosymbiotic bacteria. A similar
symbiogenesis hypothesis has been proposed involving the origins of the cell nucleus, it is described as
viral eukaryogenesis. Fungi, animals and plants are examples of species that are eukaryote.
More recently a
clade,
Neomura, has been proposed, by
Thomas Cavalier-Smith, which groups together the
Archaea and
Eukarya. Cavalier-Smith also proposed that the Neomura evolved from
Bacteria, more precisely from
Actinobacteria.
The phrase ''
complex organism'' describes any organism with more than one
cell.
Semantics
The word "'''organism'''" may broadly be defined as ''an assembly of molecules that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life.'' However, many sources, lexical and scientific, add conditions that are problematic to defining the word.
The
Oxford English Dictionary defines an organism as "[an] individual animal, plant, or single-celled life form"
[ ] This definition problematically excludes non-animal and plant multi-cellular
life forms such as some
fungi and
protista. Less controversially, perhaps, it excludes
viruses and theoretically-possible man-made
non-organic life forms.
Chambers Online Reference provides a much broader definition: "any living structure, such as a plant, animal, fungus or bacterium, capable of growth and reproduction"
[ ]. The definition emphasises
life; it allows for any life form,
organic or otherwise, to be considered an organism. This does encompass all cellular life, as well as possible synthetic life. This definition does lack anything approximating to the word "individual" which would exclude viruses.
The word "organism" usually describes an independent collections of systems (for example
circulatory,
digestive, or
reproductive) themselves collections of
organs; these are, in turn, collections of tissues, which are themselves made of
cells.
The concept of an organism can be challenged on grounds that organisms themselves are never truly independent of an
ecosystem; groups or populations of organisms function in an ecosystem in a manner not unlike the function of multicellular tissues in an organism; when organisms enter into strict
symbiosis, they are not independent in any sense that could not also be conferred upon an organ or a tissue. Symbiotic plant and algae relationships do consist of radically different DNA structures between contrasting groups of tissues, sufficient to recognize their reproductive independence. However, in a similar way, an organ within an "organism" (say, a stomach) can have an independent and complex interdependent relationship to separate whole organisms, or groups of organisms (a population of viruses, or bacteria), without which the organ's stable function would transform or cease. Other organs within that system (say, the ribcage) might be affected only indirectly by such an arrangement, much the same way species' affect one another indirectly in an ecosystem. Thus, the boundaries of the organism are nearly always disputable, and all living matter exists within larger
heterarchical systems of life, made of wide varieties of transient living and dead tissues, and functioning in complex and dynamic relationships to one another.
Herpes simplex virus
Viruses
Viruses are not typically considered to be organisms because they are not capable of "independent"
reproduction or
metabolism. This controversy is problematic, though, since some
parasites and
endosymbionts are also incapable of independent life. Although viruses have
enzymes and molecules characteristic of living organisms, they are incapable of reproducing outside a
host cell and most of their metabolic processes require a host and its 'genetic machinery.'
Superorganism
A superorganism is an organism consisting of many organisms. This is usually meant to be a social
unit of
eusocial animals, where
division of labour is highly specialised and where individuals are not able to survive by themselves for extended periods of time.
Ants are the most well known example of such a superorganism.
Thermoregulation, a feature usually exhibited by individual organisms, does not occur in individuals or small groups of
honeybees of the species ''
Apis mellifera''. When these bees pack together in clusters of between 5000 and 40000, the colony can thermoregulate.
[1] James Lovelock, with his "
Gaia Theory" has paralleled the work of
Vladimir Vernadsky, who suggested the whole of the
biosphere in some respects can be considered as a superorganism.
The concept of superorganism is under dispute, as many
biologists maintain that in order for a social unit to be considered an organism by itself, the individuals should be in permanent physical connection to each other, and its
evolution should be governed by selection to the whole society instead of individuals. While it's generally accepted that the society of eusocial animals is a unit of
natural selection to at least some extent, most
evolutionists claim that the individuals are still the primary units of selection.
The question remains "What is to be considered ''the
individual''?".
Darwinians like
Richard Dawkins suggest that the individual selected is the "
Selfish Gene". Others believe it is the whole genome of an organism.
E.O. Wilson has shown that with ant-colonies and other social
insects it is the breeding entity of the colony that is selected, and not its individual members. This could apply to the bacterial members of a
stromatolite, which, because of genetic sharing, in some way comprise a single
gene pool. Gaian theorists like
Lynn Margulis would argue this applies equally to the
symbiogenesis of the bacterial underpinnings of the whole of the Earth.
It would appear, from computer
simulations like
Daisyworld that biological
selection occurs at multiple levels simultaneously.
It is also argued that humans are actually a superorganism that includes microorganisms such as
bacteria. It is estimated that "the human intestinal microbiota is composed of 10
13 to 10
14 microorganisms whose collective
genome ("
microbiome") contains at least 100 times as many genes as our own[...] Our microbiome has significantly enriched metabolism of
glycans,
amino acids, and
xenobiotics;
methanogenesis; and 2-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate pathway–mediated biosynthesis of vitamins and
isoprenoids. Thus, humans are superorganisms whose metabolism represents an amalgamation of microbial and human attributes."
[2].
Organizational terminology
All organisms are classified by the science of
alpha taxonomy into either
taxa or
clades.
Taxa are ranked groups of organisms which run from the general (
domain) to the specific (
species). A broad scheme of ranks in hierarchical order is:
★
Domain
★
Kingdom
★
Phylum
★
Class
★
Order
★
Family
★
Genus
★
Species
To give an example, ''
Homo sapiens'' is the
Latin binomial equating to modern humans. All members of the species ''sapiens'' are, at least in theory, genetically able to interbreed. Several species may belong to a genus, but the members of different species within a genus are unable to interbreed to produce fertile offspring.
Homo, however, only has one surviving species (sapiens); ''
Homo erectus'', ''
Homo neanderthalensis'', &c. having become extinct thousands of years ago. Several genera belong to the same family and so on up the hierarchy. Eventually, the relevant kingdom (
Animalia, in the case of humans) is placed into one of the three domains depending upon certain genetic and structural characteristics.
All living organisms known to science are given classification by this system such that the species within a particular family are more closely related and genetically similar than the species within a particular phylum.
A
crab is an example of an organism.
Chemistry
Organisms are complex chemical reactions, organized in ways that promote reproduction and some measure of sustainability or survival. The molecular phenomena of chemistry are fundamental in understanding organisms, but it is a philosophical error (reductionism) to reduce organismal biology to mere chemistry. It is generally the phenomena of entire organisms that determine their fitness to an environment and therefore the survivability of their DNA based genes.
Organisms clearly owe their origin, metabolism, and many other internal functions to the phenomena at the level of chemistry, especially the chemistry of large organic molecules. Organisms are complex systems of
chemical compounds which, through interaction with each other and the environment, play a wide variety of roles.
Organisms are semi-closed chemical systems. Although they are individual units of life (as the definition requires) they are not closed to the environment around them. To operate they constantly take in and release energy.
Autotrophs produce usable energy (in the form of organic compounds) using light from the sun or inorganic compounds while
heterotrophs take in organic compounds from the environment.
The primary
chemical element in these compounds is
carbon. The physical properties of this element such as its great affinity for bonding with other small atoms, including other carbon atoms, and its small size makes it capable of forming multiple bonds, make it ideal as the basis of organic life. It is able to form small compounds containing three atoms (such as
carbon dioxide) as well as large chains of many thousands of atoms which are able to store data (
nucleic acids), hold cells together and transmit information (
protein).
Some branches of biology, especially
ecology, do not gain significant benefit from reduction to chemical reactions.
Macromolecules
The compounds which make up organisms may be divided into
macromolecules and other, smaller molecules. The four groups of macromolecule are
nucleic acids,
proteins,
carbohydrates and
lipids. Nucleic acids (specifically
deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA) store genetic data as a sequence of
nucleotides. The particular sequence of the four different types of nucleotides (
adenine,
cytosine,
guanine, and
thymine) dictate the many characteristics which constitute the organism. The sequence is divided up into
codons, each of which is a particular sequence of three nucleotides and corresponds to a particular
amino acid. Thus a sequence of DNA codes for a particular protein which, due to the chemical properties of the amino acids of which it is made,
folds in a particular manner and so performs a particular function.
The following functions of protein have been recognized:
#
Enzymes, which catalyze all of the reactions of metabolism;
# Structural proteins, such as
tubulin, or
collagen;
# Regulatory proteins, such as
transcription factors or cyclins that regulate the cell cycle;
# Signalling molecules or their receptors such as some
hormones and their receptors;
# Defensive proteins, which can include everything from
antibodies of the
immune system, to toxins (e.g.,
dendrotoxins of snakes), to proteins that include unusual amino acids like
canavanine.
Lipids make up the
membrane of cells which constitutes a barrier, containing everything within the cell and preventing compounds from freely passing into, and out of, the cell. In some multi-cellular organisms they serve to store energy and mediate communication between cells. Carbohydrates also store and transport energy in some organisms, but are more easily broken down than lipids.
Structure
All organisms consist of monomeric units called
cells; some contain a single cell (
unicellular) and others contain many units (
multicellular). Multicellular organisms are able to specialise cells to perform specific functions, a group of such cells is
tissue the four basic types of which are
epithelium,
nervous tissue,
muscle tissue and
connective tissue. Several types of tissue work together in the form of an
organ to produce a particular function (such as the pumping of the blood by the
heart, or as a barrier to the environment as the
skin). This pattern continues to a higher level with several organs functioning as an
organ system to allow for
reproduction,
digestion, &c. Many multicelled organisms comprise of several organ systems which coordinate to allow for life.
The cell
The
cell theory, first developed in 1839 by
Schleiden and
Schwann, states that all organisms are composed of one or more cells; all cells come from preexisting cells; all vital functions of an organism occur within cells, and cells contain the
hereditary information necessary for regulating cell functions and for transmitting information to the next generation of cells.
There are two types of cells, eukaryotic and prokaryotic. Prokaryotic cells are usually singletons, while eukaryotic cells are usually found in multi-cellular organisms. Prokaryotic cells lack a
nuclear membrane so
DNA is unbound within the cell, eukaryotic cells have nuclear membranes.
All cells, whether
prokaryotic or
eukaryotic, have a
membrane, which envelopes the cell, separates its interior from its environment, regulates what moves in and out, and maintains the
electric potential of the cell. Inside the membrane, a
salty
cytoplasm takes up most of the cell volume. All cells possess
DNA, the hereditary material of
genes, and
RNA, containing the information necessary to
build various
proteins such as
enzymes, the cell's primary machinery. There are also other kinds of
biomolecules in cells.
All cells share several abilities
[3]:
★ Reproduction by
cell division (
binary fission,
mitosis or
meiosis).
★ Use of
enzymes and other
proteins
coded for by
DNA genes and made via
messenger RNA intermediates and
ribosomes.
★
Metabolism, including taking in raw materials, building cell components, converting
energy,
molecules and releasing
by-products. The functioning of a cell depends upon its ability to extract and use chemical energy stored in organic molecules. This energy is derived from
metabolic pathways.
★ Response to external and internal
stimuli such as changes in temperature,
pH or nutrient levels.
★ Cell contents are contained within a
cell surface membrane that contains proteins and a
lipid bilayer.
Life span
One of the basic parameters of organism is its
life span. Some animals live as short as one day, while some plants can live thousands of years.
Aging is important when determining life span of most organisms, bacterium, a virus or even a
prion.
Evolution
In biology, the theory of
universal common descent proposes that all organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor or ancestral gene pool.
Evidence for common descent may be found in traits shared between all living organisms. In Darwin's day, the evidence of shared traits was based solely on visible observation of morphologic similarities, such as the fact that all birds have wings, even those which do not fly. Today, there is strong evidence from genetics that all organisms have a common ancestor. For example, every living cell makes use of
nucleic acids as its genetic material, and uses the same twenty
amino acids as the building blocks for
proteins. The universality of these traits strongly suggests common ancestry.
The "Last Universal Ancestor" is the name given to the
hypothetical single cellular organism or single cell that gave rise to all
life on Earth 3.9 to 4.1 billion years ago; however, this hypothesis has since been refuted on many grounds. For example, it was once thought that the
genetic code was universal (see:
universal genetic code), but differences in the genetic code and differences in how each organism translates nucleic acid sequences into proteins, provide support that there never was any "last universal common ancestor." Back in the early 1970s, evolutionary biologists thought that a given piece of
DNA specified the same
protein subunit in every living thing, and that the genetic code was thus universal. Since this is something unlikely to happen by chance, it was interpreted as evidence that every organism had
inherited its genetic code from a single common ancestor, aka., the "Last Universal Ancestor." In 1979, however, exceptions to the code were found in mitochondria, the tiny energy factories inside cells. Biologists subsequently found exceptions in
bacteria and in the
nuclei of
algae and single-celled animals. It is now clear that the genetic code is not the same in all living things, and that it does not provide powerful evidence that all living things evolved on a single tree of life.
[4] Further support that there is no "Last Universal Ancestor" has been provided over the years by
Lateral gene transfer in both
prokaryote and
eukaryote single cell organisms. This is why
phylogenetic trees cannot be rooted, why almost all phylogenetic trees have different branching structures, particularly near the base of the tree, and why many organisms have been found with
codons and sections of their
DNA sequence that are unrelated to any other species.
Information about the early development of life includes input from the fields of geology and
planetary science. These sciences provide information about the history of the Earth and the changes produced by life. However, a great deal of information about the early Earth has been destroyed by geological processes over the course of time.
History of life
Main articles: Timeline of evolution
The
chemical evolution from
self-catalytic chemical reactions to
life (see
Origin of life) is not a part of biological evolution, but it is unclear at which point such increasingly complex sets of reactions became what we would consider, today, to be living organisms.
Not much is known about the earliest developments in life. However, all existing organisms share certain traits, including cellular structure and
genetic code. Most scientists interpret this to mean all existing organisms share a common ancestor, which had already developed the most fundamental cellular processes, but there is no
scientific consensus on the relationship of the three domains of life (
Archaea,
Bacteria,
Eukaryota) or the
origin of life. Attempts to shed light on the earliest history of life generally focus on the behavior of
macromolecules, particularly
RNA, and the behavior of
complex systems.
The emergence of oxygenic
photosynthesis (around 3 billion years ago) and the subsequent emergence of an oxygen-rich, non-reducing atmosphere can be traced through the formation of
banded iron deposits, and later
red beds of iron oxides. This was a necessary prerequisite for the development of
aerobic cellular respiration, believed to have emerged around 2 billion years ago.
In the last billion years, simple multicellular plants and animals began to appear in the oceans. Soon after the emergence of the first animals, the
Cambrian explosion (a period of unrivaled and remarkable, but brief, organismal diversity documented in the fossils found at the
Burgess Shale) saw the creation of all the major body plans, or
phyla, of modern animals. This event is now believed to have been triggered by the development of the
Hox genes. About 500 million years ago,
plants and
fungi colonized the land, and were soon followed by
arthropods and other animals, leading to the development of land
ecosystems with which we are familiar.
The evolutionary process may be exceedingly slow. Fossil evidence indicates that the diversity and complexity of modern life has developed over much of the
history of the earth.
Geological evidence indicates that the Earth is approximately
4.6 billion years old. Studies on guppies by David Reznick at the University of California, Riverside, however, have shown that the rate of evolution through natural selection can proceed 10 thousand to 10 million times faster than what is indicated in the fossil record.
[5]. Such comparative studies however are invariably biased by disparities in the time scales over which evolutionary change is measured in the laboratory, field experiments, and the fossil record.
Horizontal gene transfer, and the history of life
The ancestry of living organisms has traditionally been reconstructed from morphology, but is increasingly supplemented with phylogenetics - the reconstruction of phylogenies by the comparison of genetic (DNA) sequence.
"Sequence comparisons suggest recent
horizontal transfer of many
genes among diverse
species including across the boundaries of
phylogenetic 'domains'. Thus determining the phylogenetic history of a species can not be done conclusively by determining evolutionary trees for single genes."
[6]
Biologist Gogarten suggests "the original metaphor of a tree no longer fits the data from recent genome research,eww" therefore "biologists [should] use the metaphor of a mosaic to describe the different histories combined in individual genomes and use [the] metaphor of a net to visualize the rich exchange and cooperative effects of HGT among microbes."
[7]
Ecology
The ecosystem concept
Main articles: Ecosystem
The first principle of ecology is that each living organism has an ongoing and continual relationship with every other element that makes up its environment. An
ecosystem can be defined as any situation where there is interaction between organisms and their environment.
The ecosystem is composed of two entities, the entirety of life, the
biocoenosis and the medium that life exists in the
biotope. Within the ecosystem, species are connected and dependent upon one another in the
food chain, and exchange
energy and
matter between themselves and with their environment.
The concept of an ecosystem can apply to units of variable size, such as a
pond, a field, or a piece of deadwood. A unit of smaller size is called a ''
microecosystem''. For example, an ecosystem can be a stone and all the life under it. A ''mesoecosystem'' could be a
forest, and a ''macroecosystem'' a whole
ecoregion, with its
drainage basin.
The main questions when studying an ecosystem are:
★ Whether the colonization of a barren area could be carried out
★ Investigation the ecosystem's dynamics and changes
★ The methods of which an ecosystem interacts at local, regional and global scale
★ Whether the current state is stable
★ Investigating the value of an ecosystem and the ways and means that interaction of ecological systems provide benefit to humans, especially in the provision of healthy water.
Ecosystems are often classified by reference to the biotopes concerned. The following ecosystems may be defined:
★ As
continental ecosystems, such as
forest ecosystems,
meadow ecosystems such as
steppes or
savannas), or
agro-ecosystems
★ As ecosystems of inland waters, such as
lentic ecosystems such as
lakes or
ponds; or
lotic ecosystems such as
rivers
★ As
oceanic ecosystems.
Another classification can be done by reference to its communities, such as in the case of an
human ecosystem.
Spatial relationships and subdivisions of land
Main articles: Biome,
ecozone
Ecosystems are not isolated from each other, but are interrelated. For example,
water may circulate between ecosystems by the means of a
river or
ocean current. Water itself, as a liquid medium, even defines ecosystems. Some species, such as
salmon or freshwater
eels move between marine systems and fresh-water systems. These relationships between the ecosystems lead to the concept of a ''biome''.
A
biome is a homogeneous ecological formation that exists over a large region as
tundra or
steppes. The
biosphere comprises all of the Earth's biomes -- the entirety of places where life is possible -- from the highest mountains to the depths of the oceans.
Biomes correspond rather well to subdivisions distributed along the latitudes, from the
equator towards the
poles, with differences based on to the physical environment (for example, oceans or mountain ranges) and to the
climate. Their variation is generally related to the distribution of species according to their ability to tolerate temperature and/or dryness. For example, one may find
photosynthetic algae only in the ''photic'' part of the ocean (where light penetrates), while
conifers are mostly found in mountains.
Though this is a simplification of more complicated scheme,
latitude and
altitude approximate a good representation of the distribution of
biodiversity within the biosphere. Very generally, the richness of biodiversity (as well for animal than plant species) is decreasing most rapidly near the
equator (as in
Brazil) and less rapidly as one approaches the poles.
The biosphere may also be divided into
ecozone, which are very well defined today and primarily follow the continental borders. The ecozones are themselves divided into
ecoregions, though there is not agreement on their limits.
Ecosystem productivity
In an ecosystem, the connections between species are generally related to
food and their role in the
food chain. There are three categories of organisms:
★ ''Producers'' -- usually plants which are capable of
photosynthesis but could be other organisms such as bacteria around ocean vents that are capable of
chemosynthesis.
★ ''Consumers'' -- animals, which can be primary consumers (
herbivorous), or secondary or tertiary consumers (
carnivorous).
★ ''Decomposers'' --
bacteria,
mushrooms which degrade organic matter of all categories, and restore minerals to the environment.
These relations form sequences, in which each individual consumes the preceding one and is consumed by the one following, in what are called
food chains or food network. In a food network, there will be fewer organisms at each level as one follows the links of the network up the chain.
These concepts lead to the idea of
biomass (the total living matter in a given place), of
primary productivity (the increase in the mass of plants during a given time) and of
secondary productivity (the living matter produced by consumers and the decomposers in a given time).
These two last ideas are key, since they make it possible to evaluate the load capacity -- the number of organisms which can be supported by a given ecosystem. In any food network, the energy contained in the level of the producers is not completely transferred to the consumers. And the higher one goes up the chain, the more energy and resources is lost and consumed. Thus, from an energy—and environmental—point of view, it is more efficient for humans to be primary consumers (to subsist from vegetables, grains, legumes, fruit, cotton, etc.) than as secondary consumers (from eating herbivores, omnivores, or their products, such as milk, chickens, cattle, sheep, etc.) and still more so than as a tertiary consumer (from consuming carnivores, omnivores, or their products, such as fur, pigs, snakes, alligators, etc.). An ecosystem(s) is unstable when the load capacity is overrun and is especially unstable when a population doesn't have an ecological niche and overconsumers.
The productivity of ecosystems is sometimes estimated by comparing three types of land-based ecosystems and the total of aquatic ecosystems:
★ The forests (1/3 of the Earth's land area) contain dense biomasses and are very productive. The total production of the world's forests corresponds to half of the primary production.
★ Savannas, meadows, and marshes (1/3 of the Earth's land area) contain less dense biomasses, but are productive. These ecosystems represent the major part of what humans depend on for food.
★ Extreme ecosystems in the areas with more extreme climates -- deserts and semi-deserts, tundra, alpine meadows, and steppes -- (1/3 of the Earth's land area) have very sparse biomasses and low productivity
★ Finally, the marine and fresh water ecosystems (3/4 of Earth's surface) contain very sparse biomasses (apart from the coastal zones).
Humanity's actions over the last few centuries have seriously reduced the amount of the Earth covered by forests (
deforestation), and have increased agro-ecosystems (
agriculture). In recent decades, an increase in the areas occupied by extreme ecosystems has occurred (
desertification).
References
1. The honey bee cluster as a homeothermic superorganism, , Edward E., Southwick, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, 1983
2. Gill S. R., et al. ''Science'', ''312'', 1355-1359 ('2006'). http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1124234
3. The Universal Features of Cells on Earth in Chapter 1 of ''Molecular Biology of the Cell'' fourth edition, edited by Bruce Alberts (2002) published by Garland Science.
4. PBS Charged with "False Claim" on "Universal Genetic Code., , Mark, Edwards, Science, TV Review, & Education Writers,
5. Evaluation of the Rate of Evolution in Natural Populations of Guppies (Poecilia reticulata) "[1]"
6. Oklahoma State - Horizontal Gene Transfer
7. esalenctr.org
External links
★
What is Ecology?
★
BBCNews: 27 September, 2000, When slime is not so thick Citat: "...It means that some of the lowliest creatures in the plant and animal kingdoms, such as slime and amoeba, may not be as primitive as once thought...."
★
★
SpaceRef.com, July 29, 1997: Scientists Discover Methane Ice Worms On Gulf Of Mexico Sea Floor
★
★
★
The Eberly College of Science: Methane Ice Worms discovered on Gulf of Mexico Sea Floor download Publication quality photos
★
★
Artikel, 2000: Methane Ice Worms: Hesiocaeca methanicola. Colonizing Fossil Fuel Reserves
★
★
SpaceRef.com, May 04, 2001: Redefining "Life as We Know it" ''Hesiocaeca methanicola'' In 1997, Charles Fisher, professor of biology at Penn State, discovered this remarkable creature living on mounds of methane ice under half a mile of ocean on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.
★
BBCNews, 18 December, 2002, 'Space bugs' grown in lab Citat: "...''Bacillus simplex'' and ''Staphylococcus pasteuri''...''Engyodontium album''...The strains cultured by Dr Wainwright seemed to be resistant to the effects of UV - one quality required for survival in space...."
★
BBCNews, 19 June, 2003, Ancient organism challenges cell evolution Citat: "..."It appears that this organelle has been conserved in evolution from prokaryotes to eukaryotes, since it is present in both,"..."
★
Interactive Syllabus for General Biology - BI 04, Saint Anselm College, Summer 2003
★
Jacob Feldman: Stramenopila
★
NCBI Taxonomy entry: root (rich)
★
Saint Anselm College: Survey of representatives of the major Kingdoms Citat: "...Number of
kingdoms has not been resolved...Bacteria present a problem with their diversity...
Protista present a problem with their diversity...",
★
Species 2000 Indexing the world's known species. Species 2000 has the objective of enumerating all known species of plants, animals, fungi and microbes on Earth as the baseline dataset for studies of global biodiversity. It will also provide a simple access point enabling users to link from here to other data systems for all groups of organisms, using direct species-links.
★
The largest organism in the world may be a fungus carpeting nearly 10 square kilometers of an Oregon forest, and may be as old as 10500 years.
★
The Tree of Life.
★
Frequent questions from kids about life and their answers
★
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